LevisL

Nice work ARCBC30! You can save the Chief walkthroughs in that format too! It all depends on the walkthrough. For an exterior fly-around like this, it's about as simple as it can get. I can do one in the same time or less than you guys claim... and no need for other software! Granted I don't have audio to go with it, but to me, that doesn't matter.

Are you wanting to use this 'flyby' just for yourself or as a video to show/send to your client(s)? If it's the latter, you can do record a video along a walkthrough path. I do it quite often. Here's how: - Draw a CAD circle (80 to 100ft radius, or whatever is needed) and center it on the house as best you can - Select the circle and click 'Convert Polyline' tool and change it to a walkthrough path. - Select the walkthrough path and open its dbx - Change the camera angle to 270º for both frames 1 & 2, which will make the camera face towards the center of the circle. - Set the height to whatever is desired (unless someone else can chime in with a way, I don't think you can have the camera change levels part way through the video...) - Adjust duration, time after, etc. as desired - Click 'Record walkthrough along path' These files can get quite large, so I tend to make them just short clips (~20 seconds). Even then, they are still too large to email, so I share Dropbox links of these videos with my clients. You'll probably have to do a couple trials to fine tune the settings to the way you like. Here's an example of one of my videos: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9d9c9jqr046wgja/Cook%20Residence%20-%20Concept%201.1%20-%20Flyaround%20Video.mov?dl=0

Todd, I think you meant to post to my suggestion on window tab length! (https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2899-window-tab-length/#entry24365)

Hi nuwest, Doesn't look like you got too many responses, unless people messaged you personally. I'm really busy, but if you're still looking for someone and are not on a super tight schedule (I'm booked solid the next 2 months at least), I might be able to help you later on.

Mac users can also use OPTION,SHIFT,+ to get the ± symbol. Then you don't need to use the macro.

I'm with you guys. I use a similar polyline system that a few others have mentioned, since I also like to have a quick visual of what's included or not. I have a 'CAD, Area Polylines' layer and a few layersets where this layer is visible (e.g.: 'Prelim Design Set + Area Polylines', 'Working Drawing Set + Area Polylines'). In these layersets, I also turn on the 'Walls, Main Layer Only' layer to make things easier to snap to. And I made a CAD block in my library of 5 or 6 different colored filled polylines (on the proper layer) that I can just insert in a plan and unblock, which saves me a couple steps every time. The only thing missing is to be able to extract the areas of those polylines to automatically update and add up in my Areas table.

Another factor to consider for the inside slope is the type of attic insulation. Up here in Canada, our Code limits the slope to 4.5/12 for mineral fibre or cellulose fibre loose-fill insulation, and 2.5/12 for other types of loose-fill. You guys must have something similar in your Codes. If you're planning on using batts or spray-foam, then this isn't as issue, but I thought I'd mention it.

I like that idea!

I respect Chief wanting to keep dimensions accurate, but it would definitely be useful to override dimension numbers every once in a while. If Chief ever allows us to do it, I would like to be able to quickly see on the screen which dimensions are overridden, whether it be some sort of highlight that doesn't print or underline similar to spellcheck or something along those lines. That way, for those that re-use plans or share plans with other users, you don't have to do a thorough search to find out who was lazy and overrode the dimension instead of changing the plan properly! This is coming from someone who's been burned by someone else's laziness before!!!

If the 'select same/load same' tool was available for more (or all) items (like walls, 2D cad, etc.), I think it would be even better than a general 'match properties' tool. I really like that you can pick with properties you want to match with the 'select same/load same' tool, because sometimes I only wish to copy certain properties.

Thanks Glenn. I was in a rush to finish off the renderings and that's more or less what I ended up doing. I just changed all my glass to 'Color - Black'. I'll change it back to glass when I need to.

Alright, I'll try that. Thanks guys. I was hoping there was a way without creating a bunch of layers. I was working off an imported .dwg file and I had already mapped everything to the CAD, Default layer. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't such a good idea!!! There's not too many things I miss about AutoCAD, but in this case, the match properties command would've been really easy to use...

Any tricks you'd like to share Gene? Or anyone else for that matter. I'm trying to make the glass opaque for a line drawing and I can't figure out how!!! I tried modifying the 'glass standard' material to be a 'general material' with 0% transparency, but it still shows as transparent in every view/rendering style but vector views (because I have opaque glass checked off). What gives?!

Is there any trick/tool I'm missing to quickly match properties of CAD lines? E.g.: I have one CAD line that I've changed to be red and dashed, and I want to apply those same settings to a bunch more lines scattered throughout my drawing. I can't find any match properties icon/command and select same/load same isn't available for CAD lines...

The library material still needs a texture image to remain associated with it, so you need to keep the image you downloaded to your desktop somewhere. If you don't want them to clutter your desktop, create a folder somewhere for all the texture images you download instead. Then you can changes where the material looks for the texture file to get it pointed to the right folder.

I ended up finding my own solution in the end. I deleted the automatically generated attic wall above that short piece of wall and it works fine now.

This one!

Here you go! Just thought it might be something simple that I was missing, so I thought I'd post without attaching the plan first. Option 2 - Concept 1.2.plan.zip

Double click on your floor tools icon (blue and white house) and change the ceiling height there. As long as your rooms are all using the default height, they will all update.

This one's got me stumped! I have a roof plane where the ridge gets cut back at the siding of a short piece of wall below (preventing it from joining the other roof plane), when it should line up with the outer edge of the framing of that wall. Is there a way to make the roof plane ignore the siding, without moving that wall? I tried dragging the grips and and joining the roof planes, but nothing I've done so far gets rid of that ~1" gap. It looks stupid!

You don't need to save the texture file for each project. Just put all your textures in the same folder and make sure the material in your Chief library links to the correct texture image. I put all my custom texture image files in the Chief X6 Data folder, in the Textures>My Textures sub-folder. This also makes it easier to migrate your custom materials from one version of Chief to the next, rather than having texture images scattered in multiple folders. The only time you need to have the textures in the same folder as your plan is if you want to send the .plan file with all the textures to someone else, in which case using 'Backup Entire Plan' will do that for you.

Just delete the drywall layer from the wall definition altogether. If you're using the same wall type with drywall somewhere else in the plan, create a new wall type with no drywall. To get the studs to show in camera view, you'll have to build the framing, otherwise Chief will just show a solid wood layer. As for the ceiling, similar approach. Delete the drywall layer from the ceiling finish section of the room dbx. Again, you'll have to draw in the trusses to get them to show in the camera views. EDIT: You may also need to turn on the framing layers in the Camera View Set to see the framing. They might not be on by default.

A few other options for Mac users: 1. Use the 'Grab' App. It's located in the 'Other' folder of the Launchpad. Works much like Windows' Snipping Tool, except it saves in the .tiff format. You can grab either a selection, window, screen, or timed screen. 2. Use Preview. File>Take Screen Shot. Again, you have the option of selection, window, or screen. This method allows you to save in the image format of your choice, which I like.

When I downloaded the free version on my machine, I got 8 hours of trial for the Pro version. I barely use it, so I have 7.5 hours left! Maybe that's why I can export to more file formats than you?

You should be able to Steve. It works similar to Chief in that you can open objects from previous versions, but once you save them, they are not backwards compatible. I have the free version of Sketchup on my iMac and that's exactly how I get around the fact that I can't import Sketchup symbols directly into Chief. I don't use it too often, so I don't remember which format of export works better, but you have the same options as Robert mentioned for the Mac version as well, just in case collada doesn't work for you.